Trial By Fire

The Silicon War Triology

Chapter 5 - Booking

Now what everyone fails to inform you of on TV is
where the money comes from for bail, attorney fees, etc. Remember, my wife and
I had just bought our first house six months before and to do it, we had to
borrow $10,000 from Gopal as a 2nd mortgage. However, this attorney just requested
a down payment of $2,000 to handle just the "Bail and Arraignment hearing".

Now... that shouldn't be a problem, right. Remember
Gopal's bonus check. However, my bank informed that Gopal just canceled it.

Ok then... how about my severance pay from
Maruman for all my hard work... right? The severance envelope contained a
check for $1,364.72 for my last 8 days of work. My stock options, bonus, a thank
you - you got to be kidding - absolutely nothing! They didn't even pay me to
the end of the pay period.

It seemed that any money given to me now would be
considered a bribe or some type of payoff for me to keep silent.

I knew I had just over $1,400 in the checking
account, but if I used that, then there would be no food money for Maria and
the kids to live on. So this is when you turn around and ask for help.

And this is also where you find out how many
friends you really have.

Well… the rumors in the media of my associating
with a ‘Commi Spy' well... is somewhat limited these friends' participation. I
received "Oh... gosh... Bob, we would like to help you but under the
circumstances, we're sorry. We just can't. We can't get evolved. My employer
might get mad".

And to make thing even worse, on Thursday, October
5, 1978 at 4:00 pm, there was D'Alquist in full makeup:

"We
are announcing the additional indictments and arrest of Andrew Bouré, Lee
Yamato and Robert Contie on 5 additional counts of solicitation of a bribe,
theft of trade secrets, possession of stolen property and conspiracy. More
arrests may come".

The next day, my attorney went to D'Alquist and
asked to allow me to surrender on Monday morning. I wasn't a flight risk and
even if I was, I couldn't have afforded the plane ticket. It was very evident
that the $2,000 I had given him would not be enough for him to represent me
thru to a trial. He said "Bob, look! Let's be honest here, you will need to
come up with around $150,000 retainer to start".

Gopal's bail had been set at $500,000 so we
figured that mine would be in the range of $100,000. This meant I would need
to come up with 10% or $10,000 to give to a bail bondsman.

I said "Well that just not going to happen. I
don't have any cash like that on hand".

Therefore, if I surrendered and was held on
Monday, I would be staying in jail until the trial was over. There was just no
place to obtain this level of money. Even the arrested drug dealer who was
just arrested in Santa Clara got out on a $25,000 bond.

Yamato had it much easier. He had the money for a
private attorney since he had been in his house for 8 years and had recovered
from that initial outflow of cash that takes place when you buy a house. His
attorney got him $25,000 bail or $2,500 bond. He just used the equity in the
house as collateral for bail and initial attorney fees.

For Bouré, he was also quit vocal on what was said
during the meeting with Worth and Dunlap. He did not offer a bribe or kick
back. "The words are right there in the f!@#ing contract" he said.

What he got back was that the meetings with Gopal
were recorded by the Police and they knew exactly what he had said.

He then asked "Let me hear them..."!

He received back: "We have a transcript of
the conversation that you can read. You can hear them at trial".

Whoever decided to arrest Bouré was never
determined. No one would take credit because of what happened, but he was with
his family in San Francisco for a fund raising dinner for Mayor George Moscone
when he was arrested. Being small in stature, Bouré was televised being
arrested "kicking and screaming out the door". What was not shown, but was
witnessed to by many in attendance was Bouré's feet were kicked out from him as
they approached the camera.

What made this arrest so visible - Moscone had run
for Mayor of San Francisco 1975 and won in a close race against a very
conservative Republican city supervisor John Barbagelata. Moscone was pro gay
rights, Barbagelata was not. In fact, Democratic progressives won the other
top city's executive offices. Joseph Freitas was elected District Attorney and
Richard Hongisto was re-elected to his office of Sheriff. Neither of them was
informed of the pending arrest and was caught by surprise at the action. Many
others stated that this was just another attempt to embarrass Moscone
liberalization of San Francisco.

Bouré was booked in Santa Clara County Jail on
Friday night and promptly was "lost" -- as in the paperwork went missing. It
was somewhere between Saturday night and Sunday morning, when Bouré was found
alive but severely beaten, raped and hung.

Of course there were no witnesses to this. Some
said that it was gay relate, other said it was gang related but most just said
that "the Commi Spy deserved it".

In fact, a white supremacist named Dennis ‘Deeter'
Buckner who was arrested that same night for DWI said it best "This is what we
do to f!@#en commi spies!"[1]

**

My weekend was spent in solitude and disbelief. Maria
was scared then very angry at me. She had contacted her parents to see if she
could move in with the kids. She was working as a daytime nurse and brought
home just about what her expenses were. The loss of my job said we would very
quickly loose ever thing. As silly as it sounds, I was still looking for a job
in the want ads on Sunday. There would have to be someone out there that would
give me a job.

It was Monday, October 9, 1978 about 5:00 am when my
eyes just opened up. The shower and shave went quickly. I still had a blue
blazer from Sears that I had got 2 years ago to interview in. Can you believe
it... it was made of polyester? I had a white shirt, stupid tie, dark socks,
and black slip-on shoes. I had no idea where I was going or what was in store
for me. I had just resigned myself to being in jail for some time because of
no money.

Maria and I had said our goodbyes the night before
and she now pretended to be asleep. Penny, our dog kept licking her and
wagging her tail so I knew she was awake, but it was easier for me this way.

The walk out to the car was in solitude. It then took
a couple of deep breaths to start the car. I was about to go into something I
didn't know anything about but then the damn car started.

My drive to jail was done in slow motion.

I was supposed to surrender to the Santa Clara
Sherriff Office at 9:00 am but I got there at 6:30 am. I wondered if they
would ask me to come back?

Instead, I decided to have my last free meal and head
down the street to a Denney's coffee shop I had passed earlier. Nothing seemed
to have changed since I had worked for a different store during my 2nd year in
school. So with a "Grand-slam, all bacon, over medium and coffee please", I
had breakfast. After finishing breakfast and a second cup of coffee, I hit the
head, paid the check and headed out.

As silly as this is going to sound, it dawned on
me that all the parking around the city offices was paid parking and I couldn't
park the car there. They would tow the car away before I could get out of jail
after the trial. So I drove around for a while looking for some place to park
the car for free. I figured I could call Maria and tell her where it was and
she could come get it. I finally parked in an industrial complex, and walk the
2 miles back to the Sherriff's Office.

As I got there, it was just straight up the stairs
to the Officer at the front desk and said "Hi, I'm Robert Contie. I was asked
to surrender to you at 9:00 this morning. I'm sorry about being late".

"Yes Mr. Contie. We were expecting you. Would
you like some coffee"?

"That would be nice". [Yea, I know but you
will understand in a second].

"Cream" she asked as she poured the coffee?
"We'll first be fingerprinting you and then photograph you over here. Would
you please follow me"?

With my coffee cup in my right hand, they finger
printed my left. I then changed hands, and they finger printed my right. They
gave me a hand wipe to remove the ink, but the cup still had some ink on it. If
you would have been able to see it in my mug shot, I was smiling with the
coffee cup in my right hand.

"Well, Mr. Contie that should do it for now. Normally
we would ask you to go down stairs but your attorney has taken care of
everything for you. Also, the ADA, Toni D'Alquist has asked us to release you
as soon as possible. He would like to speak with you as soon as you can get to
the Superior Court. Here is his name and address to see him at. And he was
quite urgent with this request."

And that my friend was my booking - my "one
day in jail". You know what was funny, the coffee was pretty good.